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“It’s my favorite hat, and it’s still December,” I protested.
“It’s December for another few hours,” Harlan said. “You can’t wear a Santa hat on New Year’s Eve, for God’s sake.”
“Oh yes I can, and I will,” I said.
“Who’s thathotguy in a Santa hat?” I heard from the end of the bar, and I looked to see Casey sitting there, leaning back and giving me the eyes.
Jade Brewery was decked out in New Year’s Eve decorations for tonight. A lot of their Christmas decor was still up, too, but they’d added sparkly gold garlands everywhere they could fit them, and champagne glasses filled the back of the bar where pint glasses for beer usually lived.
I walked over to Casey and dipped to press a slow kiss to his lips. A flurry of butterflies still hit me every time I kissed him. I knew it wasn’t “forbidden,” anymore, but it still felt like I was getting away with something.
And it still felt like Casey was totally out of my league, anyway.
“Glad you’re here,” I told him. “And you brought company, I see?”
Casey’s construction crew, the Fixer Brothers, were hanging out in various parts of the bar. I recognized them from the first night we’d met, which felt like ages ago, now.
“I didn’t even bring them,” Casey said. “They just knew this was the best place to be on New Year’s Eve.”
“Theonlyplace to be,” Harlan corrected him.
I sat down next to Casey, making myself comfortable. Jade Brewery really was becoming one of my favorite places already, even though I knew half of it had to do with it being the place where Casey and I had met.
“I got you something,” he said as I sat down.
There was a tiny red bag sitting on the top of the bar. He reached for it, sliding it over toward me.
“A gift?”
“A little gift,” he told me.
I pulled the ribbon off of the little bag, opening it up. Inside, there was an even smaller plush. I took it out, seeing that it was in the shape of a little cinnamon roll, about the size of a hockey puck, with two cartoon eyes on the front of it.
I puffed out a laugh. “Where in the hell did you find this?”
“Doing some coding work for a company that sells a million different little plushies. I came across this one and it made me think of you.”
“This is going right on the dashboard of my truck,” I told him.
“I figured it could be a reminder that you’re never alone, you know?” Casey said, reaching a hand out and squeezing my thigh. “No matter what happens between us. No matter what all this turns out to be.”
“And a reminder that sometimes, the weirdest things end up really, really good,” I said softly, turning over the little cinnamon roll in my fingers.
“The weirdest things are the fuckingbestthings,” Casey agreed. “And we both know it.”
“Thank you,” I said. “This’ll make me think of you every time I see it. As if I’m not already thinking about you all the time, anyway.”
He leaned over, kissing me again.
AndGod, I wasn’t used to it. I still felt like I could melt right into my chair from a simple kiss like this. The feel of his lips on mine, the faint scent of him that I knew fairly well by now.
It didn’t matter how weird the circumstances were with our lives—it just feltright, being with him.
Maybe that was all that mattered, in the end.
* * *
A few hours later, Jade Brewery had transformed from a cozy little neighborhood bar into an all-out New Year’s Eve bash. More and more people had trickled in over the night, and the place was packed now. The good music just kept coming, and Casey had managed to drag me out onto the dance floor multiple times.
